[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 12 (Thursday, January 28, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S279-S280]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       NOMINATION OF BEN BERNANKE

  Mr. SANDERS. In a little while we are going to be casting votes on an 
issue of enormous consequence, and that is whether we reappoint Ben 
Bernanke as Chairman of the Fed. I am here to argue that would be a 
very bad decision; that we should reject this nomination; that we need 
in this country a new Wall Street which understands its function is not 
simply to make as much money as it can for extraordinarily wealthy 
people on the Street, but to begin to interject the function of Wall 
Street into our productive economy, make credit available to small and 
medium-sized businesses so we can break out of this horrendous 
recession, which is causing so much pain from one end of this country 
to the other.
  In order to create a new Wall Street, we need a new Fed, and we need 
a new Fed Chairman who is going to provide new leadership. The same 
old, same old is not going to work. Everybody in America agrees and 
understands that a little over 1 year ago, our Nation--in fact the 
world's financial system--came to the edge of a major collapse.
  Everybody also understands that the function of the Fed is to protect 
the safety and soundness of our financial institutions. That is its 
main function. Can anybody deny with a straight face that the Fed and 
its Chairman, Mr. Bernanke, failed at its task? They failed. This is 
not a personal attack against Mr. Bernanke.
  But while Wall Street became converted into the largest gambling 
casino in the history of the world, where was Mr. Bernanke and the Fed, 
whose job it is to protect the safety and soundness of our financial 
institutions? They were not there. It seems to me to be a very bad idea 
to reward somebody with reappointment who failed at an enormously 
important task which has driven this country into a severe recession so 
that 17 percent of our workforce today is either unemployed or 
underemployed.
  Millions of our fellow Americans have lost their homes; they have 
lost their savings; they have lost their ability to send their kids to 
college; they have lost their hopes for the future. Mr. Bernanke failed 
at his job. He should not be rewarded with reappointment.
  Further, many of us, after 8 years of the Bush administration, said 
it is time for a change. It is time to change the priority of this 
Nation, time to move us in a new direction. The evidence is 
overwhelming that from an economic perspective as well as many other 
perspectives, the Bush administration failed.
  Let me quote from the Washington Post earlier this month. This is 
what they said about the Bush economy:

       The past decade was the worst for the U.S. economy in 
     modern times. It was, according to a wide range of data, a 
     lost decade.

  Let me repeat.

       A lost decade for American workers. There has been zero net 
     job creation since December, 1999. Middle income households 
     made less in 2008, when adjusted for inflation, than they did 
     in 1999.

  A lost decade. Standard of living for American workers down, creation 
of wealth down for American workers.
  Ben Bernanke was appointed by George W. Bush to be Chairman of the 
Fed. He was a member of the Bush administration. In fact, he was the 
chairman of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers.
  Why do you want to reappoint someone who not only failed at his job 
as Chairman of the Fed, in terms of protecting the safety and soundness 
of our financial institutions, but was an architect of the Bush 
economy, which was a disaster for American workers? We need a new 
direction at the Fed.
  It is not only looking back at the failures of Mr. Bernanke, it is 
looking forward and saying, how can the Fed respond to begin to protect 
the middle class and working families of our country? Here is something 
that has not been discussed enough. The Fed today has enormous powers.
  Many will remember that as part of the bailout, Mr. Bernanke and the 
Bush administration not only pushed for a $700 billion bailout for Wall 
Street, but on top of that Mr. Bernanke provided trillions of dollars--
let me underline that--trillions of dollars in zero-interest loans to 
large financial institutions.
  As a member of the Budget Committee, I had the opportunity to ask Mr. 
Bernanke which financial institutions received these trillions of 
dollars. I do not think that is an unreasonable question on behalf of 
the American people. Mr. Bernanke said, in so many words: Sorry, 
Senator, not going to tell you. The American people do not have to know 
who received trillions of dollars of their money. That to me is totally 
unacceptable. We need transparency at the Fed. Mr. Bernanke has not 
provided that transparency.
  I have introduced legislation to bring that transparency to the Fed. 
Someone whose views are very different from mine on many issues, Ron 
Paul in the House, brought forth similar legislation. We need 
transparency. We need a Chairman of the Fed who will give us that 
transparency. That is something Mr. Bernanke can do tomorrow. In my 
State of Vermont, and I am sure in your state of New York, Madam 
President, people are calling you every single day and they are saying: 
We are sick and tired of paying 25 or 30 percent interest rates on our 
credit cards from the same banks and bunch of crooks that we bailed out 
who got us into this recession in the first place.
  Imagine that. You have people who act on Wall Street in a reckless, 
irresponsible, illegal way. Taxpayers bail them out, and they say: 
Thank you, taxpayers. By the way, we are going to raise your interest 
rates on your credit cards. Have a nice day.
  All over America, people cannot believe that. They are outraged this 
is happening. Well, you know what. Mr. Bernanke and the Fed have the 
authority today to lower interest rates on credit cards. They could do 
that today, and that is what they should do, because one of their 
responsibilities is to protect consumers against outrageous and 
fraudulent activities. In my view, charging people 25 or 30 percent is 
outrageous and fraudulent and usurious.
  All over this country--the President mentioned it last night, 
appropriately so--small and medium-sized businesses that are making a 
profit are crying out for low-interest loans in order to expand their 
businesses and to hire new workers.
  One of the great economic problems we are having as a Nation--the 
President touched on it last night--is the need for small productive 
businesses to get the low-interest loans they need.
  Well, Mr. Bernanke was there with zero-interest loans for large, 
failed, fraudulent, dishonestly run Wall Street firms, but he is not 
there for small businesses all over this country that desperately need 
low-interest loans. The Fed has the authority today--not tomorrow, 
today--to provide low-interest loans to small and medium-sized 
businesses so that we can begin to hire new workers and bring our 
economy out of this severe recession we are currently in.
  The reason, as I understand it, that the taxpayers of this country, 
against my vote, I should say, were asked to bail out the crooks on 
Wall Street was because they were too big to fail. You see, if a small 
business goes under, that is okay. Someone has worked their whole life 
building the business, the business fails, no problem. We do not help 
them. But if you are a big financial institution and you engage in 
reckless, illegal behavior, we bail you out because if you go down, you 
are going to take a large part of the economy with you, you are too big 
to fail.
  Many of my colleagues might be surprised to know that three out of 
the four largest financial institutions we bailed out because they were 
too big to fail are bigger today than they were before we bailed them 
out because they were too big to fail. That may make sense to somebody, 
not to this Senator.
  It seems to me that what common sense suggests is that we break up 
these large financial institutions so, A, the American people are never 
again put in the position of having to bail them out because they are 
too big to

[[Page S280]]

fail and, B, that we begin to understand what Teddy Roosevelt 
understood 100 years ago: concentration of ownership is dangerous for 
the economy.
  Today, we have four major banks providing two-thirds of the credit 
cards in the country--four major financial institutions, two-thirds of 
all credit cards. We have four financial institutions writing half of 
all the mortgages in America. That is wrong. Break up the large 
financial institutions.
  Ben Bernanke has the ability to begin to do that tomorrow. I have not 
heard one word from him to suggest he will do so.
  The American people are angry. The American people are frustrated. 
What they are angry and frustrated about is that in many instances, 
they are working longer hours for lower wages than they used to, if 
they are fortunate enough to have a job. The American people are 
frustrated and angry because this immediate financial crisis and severe 
recession was caused by the recklessness and irresponsibility of a 
handful of people on Wall Street. The American people are frustrated 
and angry because they are not seeing the kind of accountability and 
change in terms of the activities on Wall Street they expect and demand 
to happen. Quite the contrary. After having bailed out people who acted 
in an illegal and irresponsible way, what they are seeing is Wall 
Street pumping millions of dollars into campaign contributions and 
lobbying so that we can bring them back to where they were before the 
bailout.
  The American people want change in the way our financial institutions 
run. The American people want change at the Fed. I believe the American 
people want a new Chairman or Chairwoman at the Fed. Now is the time to 
say to the American people: We hear you. We are going to bring about 
change. We are going to deny the reappointment of Ben Bernanke as 
Chairman. We are going to ask President Obama to give us a new nominee 
who will stand up for the middle class and working class of this 
country rather than for the big-money interests on Wall Street.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.
  Mr. BROWNBACK. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to add the 
following cosponsors to my amendment No. 3309: Senators Barrasso, 
Crapo, and Johanns.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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